Time after time I have seen women in my office with clear signs of trouble with their thyroid. They come to me with weight gain and unrelenting fatigue – both associated with thyroid dysfunction. These thyroid symptoms in women are the body’s ‘in your face’ – “I will not let you ignore me” – cry […]
Are you one of those women who scan magazines at the check out counter, reading the headlines about thyroid? Do you wonder if the headline is the reason you might be gaining weight (or unable to lose it)? Or are you sure it’s just perimenopause? Every day at my clinic I see more and more […]
One of the great things about being a health care practitioner for more than three decades is that I get to see exciting new research and development emerge –- and also witness the medical and scientific communities retract mistakes and give credence to things that were dismissed years ago. Remember when butter was “bad” and […]
Almost twenty years ago, the American College of Physicians, a pretty conservative organization, stunned the medical community by issuing a guideline that women over 50 should have a thyroid test at least once every five years. At that time, most physicians thought that they could diagnose thyroid problems themselves and that testing guidelines were unnecessary. […]
Have you been hearing a lot about thyroid imbalances lately? More and more often these days, when women experience problems like increased fatigue, loss of concentration and weight gain, the first thing that comes to mind is “it must be my thyroid.” But what does that really mean? The thyroid gland regulates your metabolism, which […]
The thyroid gland has long been considered the master gland and is well known for its ability to affect metabolism. When I order a TSH test I am trying to determine exactly how much of this hormone TSH is circulating in the blood. This provides me with information about how the thyroid and metabolism are […]
Hypothyroidism is the medical term for a sluggish thyroid. It can lead to a wide range of symptoms, including: Severe fatigue, loss of energy Weight gain, difficulty losing weight Depression and depressed mood Joint and muscle pain, headaches Dry skin, brittle nails Brittle hair, itchy scalp, hair loss Irregular periods, PMS symptoms Breast milk formation […]
It’s no secret that I am passionate about encouraging people to eat healthy, natural foods to support their health. Food is where it all begins, and an area that we can control far more easily than other things that impact our health. But how much do you understand about your thyroid, and how the foods […]
It’s nearly impossible to avoid stress in our lives. It comes at us from so many directions – work, family, friends. We try to squeeze so many things into a day that we rarely take time to slow down. Many years ago, as a female practitioner of functional medicine, I began to notice patterns among […]
Traditional medicine is great for treating serious disease, but often these practitioners aren’t looking at the whole picture. Alternative practitioners, like those of us in functional medicine, try to resolve the underlying causes of poor health rather than simply treating symptoms. In our experience, alternative hypothyroidism treatment can often reverse suboptimal thyroid function well before […]